Bavaria

It was so hard to leave Lauterbrunnen last Wednesday. It was almost as though Lauterbrunnen didn't want us to leave either, as we had massive delays that made our train trip to Germany 2 hours longer and about 50 times more painful. We finally crossed over the German border (with Em whispering 'don't mention the war') and arrived in Fussen in Southern Germany. We stayed just outside Fussen in a village called Hopfen, which was on a lake with the alps in the distance. Here's Fuz by the lake, which was a half minute walk from our accommodation:

We were struck even on our first night by how warm and friendly the Germans are. We were starving and Japh went to find takeaway, but all he could find was a schnitzel house that didn't do takeaway and they didn't speak English. They went out of their way to help us though, and kept the kitchen open, cooked us some schnitzels, and gave them to Japh on plates in a little crate so he could carry them back to the guesthouse.

We caught a bus into Fussen the next morning and our bus driver was lovely, telling us where to catch the bus to the Bavarian castles. There was an old man on the bus wearing Leiderhosen and chattering away in German to the driver, he was great. Didn't inspire Em to let Japh wear Leiderhosen though.

We decided to just visit one castle - Neuschwanstein, built by mad King Ludwig II. This was inspiration for the look of Disney castle, so it's very fairytale looking. It's built up the top of a hill in a German forest with a big waterfall tumbling down the hill opposite. We caught a horse-drawn carriage through the forest up the hill. Here's us up the front of the carriage in the village:

And going up the hill, with another carriage coming the other way:

Here's Japh outside the castle:

Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos inside. I expected it to be like a normal castle but it wasn't - the walls were painted with spectacular scenes depicting the works of Wagner, and Ludwig's bedroom had intricate wood carvings all over the bed, seat, walls, etc... and hidden doors in the walls that opened up into other rooms... and even an artificial cave! We were led around by a hilarious German tour guide. Benjamin was probably around 25, he had Mr Burns hands (Simpsons reference for those who don't watch it) and he half slid, half crept, along the floor. He was very thin, always blowing his nose, and spoke English in the way that people often imitate Germans speaking English. He was awesome.

We did a walk through the gardens after exploring the hotel, where we had a great view of the valley below (Ludwig's childhood home is the castle in the pic):

We walked all the way around to the waterfall, where Fuzlet asked to have his photo taken in front of the castle:

Japh had his first German bratwurst on the way back down the hill, then we caught the horse-drawn carriage back down to the village. On the way Em noticed a couple taking a photo of our carriage. She got a shock when they lowered the camera. Those of you who are paying attention might remember us mentioning a WA couple (Mark and Terri) who we met on a cruise up the Croatian coast, who recommended Hvar accommodation for us. Well, that was the last we saw of them... til we were coming down a hill in Bavaria, and there they were! It was the most incredible co-incidence.

The next morning we booked a hotel at the last minute in Nuremberg because we couldn't get Munich accommodation. We literally managed to book it two minutes before we had to check out. Not good for Em's nerves. We had a really long train trip which was made worse by two young German guys playing loud music... although it was kind of funny when one song started "Oh my God Becky look at her butt. It is soooo big", and 'I Like Big Butts' started blasting through the train while traveling through rural Germany. Bizarre.

It was too late to explore by the time we arrived so the next day we left our hotel and went straight to the Imperial Castle:

They didn't have any English tours so we followed along on a German one. Em pretended to understand and react to what the guide was saying, and Japh rolled his eyes at her.
Japh was very amused by all the decorative touches in the castle, such as this:

Because they reminded him of a computer game he used to play where he ran around shooting Nazis.

We wandered down the hill and found a cool little Wursthaus restaurant where we shared some German sausages and Japh tried the local beer:

Just nearby was a large square with a market, where Japh bought some chocolates with chilli and marzipan and Em checked out the famous Schoner Brunnen fountain:

Then we wandered to the famous Henkersteg Bridge (hadn't actually heard of any of these before so maybe not so famous?):

We were heading to Prague the next day so we headed back to the hotel fairly early, buying some drink on the way - where Japh managed the entire transaction speaking German then messed it up by saying 'please' instead of 'bitte'... which the guy found hilarious... but Em was very proud of him!

And that's it for Southern Germany. We've since been to Prague and are now in Berlin, so hopefully we'll get a Prague post up soon.
Love Em and Japh